Co-superintendents James Bailey and Ryan Thomas, after a special meeting of the Uinta County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees on Tuesday night. The pair were rehired for another year to fill the position of superintendent left vacant last year with the resignation of Dennis Wilson. HERALD PHOTO/Erin Buller

The Uinta County School District No. 1 Board of Trustees offered another year-long contract to co-superintendents James Bailey and Ryan Thomas after some heated public comments shed light on the process involved in choosing a superintendent at Tuesday night’s special meeting of the board.

More than two dozen members of the public, school administrators and teachers were in attendance for the meeting, with three individuals addressing the board and voicing concerns about the way the process to choose a superintendent was undertaken beginning in December.

Teacher and parent Karen Bowns said her concern was the process the board went through to seek applicants, interview and fill the position left vacant by former superintendent Dennis Wilson’s resignation last year.

“In discussions among teachers we as a staff feel like the integrity of the process was compromised and there was no opportunity for all the stakeholders to be involved in the process,” Bowns said. “I know that ultimately this is a personnel issue, but some input and feedback you should be getting from the experts. And that’s us.”

Bowns said she likes that the board now has work sessions open to the public once a month where issues can be discussed in a round-table fashion, but since the initial advertisement for a superintendent was published in the Uinta County Herald in mid-December, there hasn’t been a work session for discussion purposes.

“It’s my understanding coming in here tonight that the decision is made and yet you’ve had no input from the stakeholders in the community,” Bowns continued. “I encourage the board to back up and stop this and make sure the process is done correctly.”

Another member of the public, Bruce Lange, agreed with Bowns and said his main concern was the process of hiring a superintendent.

“It’s traditional to form a committee comprised of stakeholders and members of the community to screen resumes and set up interviews,” Lange said. “In the past this has been a community-based process, not a board-centered one. The community feels the impact of this position. And that tradition of forming a committee hasn’t always given us the best candidate, but it gives us a feeling that we’ve been involved in the process.”



Board comments

In light of these and other comments, board member Phil Petersen made a motion to table the decision for a later date. But that motion failed by a vote of five to three. The vote to offer the contract to the two co-superintendents passed with six “yes” votes and two “no” votes.

Harriet Beck voted no, saying the reason for her vote was because she would like to see one superintendent in the position.

“This is not a vote against these two men. I would just like to see one superintendent in the position. I also wish the process had been different,” Beck said.

Bob Faddis, the other no vote, said his reasoning was because the process was not open to the public.

“I think the process needs to be open and everybody needs to have their two cents worth,” Faddis said.

New board member Julie Burleigh, who voted for the contract, said she wasn’t aware of the tradition and felt badly about that.

But, she added, she voted for the two men because they’ve done a good job over the last year.

“They’ve brought our budget from a very scary place to where we have an overage today. I don’t have any reservations supporting them as co-superintendents,” Burleigh said.

Petersen added that he moved to table the decision because he agrees that the process was not the best way to go about this decision. But, he voted for the contract because financially, it makes sense.

“Financially this is a good move for us. Last year we were in a world of hurt because of what went on with the last superintendent. To castigate these two gentlemen for that is not right,” Petersen said. “I feel very badly that we did not follow the process. But we need to fix the problem where it lies and go on from there.”

Kerby Barker agreed about the decision to offer Bailey and Thomas a year-long contract.

“It is a financially sound decision to make at this time. We don’t have the money or the resources to go through the traditional process,” Barker said.

He added that even if they did bring in another person, that wouldn’t change the schematics at all — Bailey would still be in charge of curriculum and Thomas would still be in charge of human resources.

“There is a lot of controversy in the district and I for one am tired of a so-called list and head-hunting. I think this is the right decision at this time,” Barker said.

The two men were hired last year at this time to fill Wilson’s vacancy, but no extra compensation was negotiated. They both continued making what they had been as assistant superintendents, about $105,000 each, according to a public notice published in the Herald on March 27, 2009.

Negotiations over their new contracts are still ongoing, said board chairperson Kim Bateman, but should be completed within the next month or so.